Death of Travis

As it must to all men, Death came to Walter J. Travis, "grand old man of golf," last week in Denver, after long illness.

It was 30 years ago that Walter J. Travis, a young man from Australia, became known as Golfer Travis in the U. S. In 1897 he showed promise. In 1898 he was runner-up in the national amateur championship, and again in 1899. In 1900 and 1901 he was medalist and winner of the national amateur. In 1902 he tied for second in the national open, and won the amateur medal a third time in succession. He was amateur champion again in 1903, and in 1904 did what no nonresident of the British Isles had ever done, won the British amateur championship.

The Travis putting had long been a byword before Mr. Travis won abroad. Then it became an international portent. The British Golf Association passed a rule against centre-shafted clubs like the "Schenectady"* putter Mr. Travis had used with such deadly effect.

From England, Mr. Travis brought back ideas on golf course construction which are still visible in the celebrated Travis traps of the Garden City (L. I.) Golf Club, where he was for years the spare, silent, deliberate presiding genius. It was in one of his own bunkers, the cavernous one, at the left of the 18th green at Garden City, that Mr. Travis surrendered a bitter match to Jerome D. Travers, who, with H. Chandler Egan and E. M. Byers, succeeded him as leading U. S. amateur golfer.

*Patented in 1903 by Robert E. Knight of the General Electric Co., Schenectady, N. Y. In 1920 the U. S. G A. also barred this type of club (TIME, Aug. 1).